Mystery at Lake Lucid
by Glaceon of the Blue Variety
Summary: Taking a break from her usual contests in Johto, May decides to head out to Lake Lucid for a weekend of relaxation, learning about the gorgeous famed lake and the water Pokemon who live there. What she didn't expect was to find a lake full of toxic nonsense and a cute, chocolate eyed scientist on the job. What happened to Nurse Joy? Brunetteshipping. Possible three-shot.


**Chapter 1**

"Mmm," May groaned, stretching. She looked at the flawless sky, unmarred by clouds, before turning to her butterfly partner. "Isn't it a beautiful day today, Beautifly?"

Her long time friends cooed in agreement, soaring around the Johto horizon before taking its place on May's head.

Having won three ribbons from previous contests, May decided to take a break for a few days. Her Pokemon—a team which currently included Beautifly, Furret, Glaceon, Squirtle and Venasaur—were all worn out from rehearsals and constant battling. It was in everyone's best interest to get some sun, relax and recuperate.

And what better place to do that than Lake Lucid?

May had found the beautiful landmark when she was looking through her PokéNav. It was known for its pure, clean waters and its abundance of water Pokémon. The Nurse Joy there was also an expert on Water Pokémon, so it was the perfect place to get any pointers about how to train and take care of her Squirtle. She might even catch herself another water type while she was there.

May put her hand above her eyes, squinting. She could see the Pokémon Center in the distance! But before Lake Lucid could hit her sight, the smell resonating from it knocked her in the nose first.

Beautifly cringed while May rushed to cover her nose.

"What is that _awful_ smell?" May screeched, feeling nauseous, stopping in her tracks to take sight of things. Unfortunately, said smell was coming from the lake.

This lake was not what May was expecting it to be.

Slime coated the parts of the lake that connected with land. Garbage could be found in unending piles all over the lake. The water had taken on an orange tinge, as if the lake itself was nauseous. Swarms of Muk and Grimer could be spotted, probably where fifty percent of the stench was coming from.

"Let's go Beautifly! We've got to find Nurse Joy and figure out what's going on here. Something isn't right."

May and Beautifly hurried to the Pokémon Center.

When they stepped into the Pokémon Center, thankfully, the filtered ventilation system made sure that there was no stench in the building. May and Beautifly looked around, the find absolutely no one in the building. No Nurse Joy, no trainers, and no Pokémon. Something smelled fishy, and it wasn't the lake.

"Time for May's expedition! The case of the missing Nurse Joy and the polluted lake." May busted out her fake finger camera.

"We begin with the observations. Not a single trainer or Pokémon to be found!" May began walking into the direction of where the rooms were. "But what's even more mysterious is the fact that Nurse Joy isn't here as well. Maybe something happened and she had to leave." May stopped walking, putting on a dramatic face of horror. "Or maybe, she was captured by aliens and they decided to pollute the waters in an attempt to take revenge on mankind. Oh the horror!"

Beautifly sweatdropped, realizing that it had totally lost her.

"Now we must take footage of the scene of the crime." May stepped into a dark hallway. "Not a soul to be found in the abandoned Pokemon Center. The aliens didn't leave a trace of evidence that they were here."

Suddenly, a dark figure stepped out of a room and into the hallway that she was in, scaring the daylights out of her.

"BEAUTIFLY! IT'S AN ALIEN! Use Silver Wind!" Beautifly heeded its master's words, getting in front of May before using Silver Wind.

"Umbreon, use protect." An Umbreon leaped out of the room, in front of its own master, glowing. The wind was deflected.

May took a step back from the figure, gulping."Who are you?"

The dark figure proceeded to turn the switch on, revealing a smirking brunette man, not much older than her, in a lab coat. "Definitely not an alien."

"Oh, whoops. Sorry about that." Beautifly shook its head remorsefully and May returned it into her Pokéball.

"The name's Gary."

* * *

Ten minutes later, we found the two sitting in the cafeteria of the abandoned Pokémon Center. Gary had managed to find a coffee maker and was currently preparing two cups.

"So, lemme get this straight," he said, as he meticulously measured out some sugar. "Your name is May, you're a coordinator and you came here for some rest but then you saw the polluted lake, so you decided to investigate?" He walked over to May with a cup of steaming coffee. She nodded, confirming that the story was true as she accepted the coffee. As Gary sat down, Umbreon made itself comfortable on the seat, next to his thigh.

"You know all about me. But who are you?"

"Ah, I'm Gary Oak. I'm a scientist and I actually came to investigate the polluted waters of Lake Lucid myself. Something is definitely out of the ordinary here."

May nodded again, taking a sip from her mug, before realizing..."Wait, Oak? You wouldn't happen to be Professor Oak's grandson, would you?"

"You caught me." He smiled, petting Umbreon.

"Whoa," May said, excitedly, putting her hands on the table. "I actually really only know about you through Ash."

"You know Ash, too?" he queried, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, we used to travel together back in the Hoenn region."

Gary smiled reminiscently. "Interesting. I'm sure you already know, but he and I used to be rivals waaay back when."

May chuckled,"I've heard the torture stories." Gary joined in on her laughter, chugging down the rest of his coffee. May took this time to survey him. He had on a black shirt and hideous purple pants under his lab coat. He had shaggy chocolate hair and some serious bags under his eyes—he definitely didn't lie about being a scientist. But although he looked insanely sleep deprived, he had this energy about him...

Gary then interrupted her thoughts, "Well, as you can tell, you aren't going to be able to get much R&R here. Olivine City isn't too far away from here and it's near the coast and has some great places to eat. You should head there."

May shook her head fervently. "No way."

Gary grinned, putting his mug down. "I was hoping you'd say that."

"Now that I'm here, I have to know what's going on. Nurse Joy's missing, and the lake is absolutely ruined. It's such a shame, too. I heard that this lake was beautiful and that Nurse Joy was an expert on Water Pokémon."

Gary nodded, looking grave. "Actually, a long, long time ago, Lake Lucid _was_ a polluted, toxic mess. Kind of like it is now. The grandmother of the current Nurse Joy was the one who started the beautification of the lake. Then her daughter, Nurse Joy's mother, finished the job with the help of the townspeople, and it became a haven for all kinds of water Pokémon. The injured came here to recover, and the healthy came here to become stronger. The current Nurse Joy had kept her family's legacy going. But some trainers reported that she'd suddenly gone missing, and the lake just became like this in a matter of weeks."

"Weeks? The way this lake looks, you'd think this all accumulated over years."

"That's the thing. To me it sounds like somebody took Nurse Joy out of the way and proceeded to destroy Lake Lucid. But I don't understand how or why."

May suddenly got out of her chair, with her fist in the air. "It sounds like a mystery to me! A suspenseful addition to May's expedition."

Gary gave her a strange, yet amused look, but he decided to let her have her fun. "Actually, the pollution isn't as terrible in Lake Lucid as it was back in Nurse Joy's grandmother's day. I've been running a few tests here and it seems like the pollution can be reversed within a matter of months, if we have enough hands on deck to help. My first priority is just to find Nurse Joy and find who—"

_Crash!_

* * *

_A/N—Look at me! I'm on a roll here. I guess it helps that we've had so many snow days and that I've been watching so many old episodes of Pokémon. This is my first Brunetteshipping fic. Don't get me wrong, I'm a die hard Contestshipper. Buuuut, I feel like Drew and Gary have a lot of parallels to each other. Gary is to Ash as Drew is to May. Except Drew tossed roses at May and Gary probably threw rocks at Ash...Jagged rocks. x.x_

_This looks like it's going to be a three-shot. Maybe a four-shot. But I'm not going into a whole thing about May's journey in Johto, otherwise I'd have to change the pairing to Drew/May._

_So hopefully you guys like the story. And hopefully this is a reminder to stop littering. All your littered nonsense ends up in oceans and lakes and it kills. Don't be a killer. Be a lover. Like Drew._

_Please leave your thoughts and comments! As always, constructive criticism is welcome._


End file.
